Post by rachelnewcomb on Aug 4, 2011 21:18:03 GMT -5
My mother constantly complains about how impatient I am and I always counter that I am a product of the technology around me. In most cases technology has granted us the ability to achieve goals quickly. I don’t have to slave over the stove cooking for a meal, I can drive to Taco Bell. I don’t need to read entire books, to gain information because I can find it condensed and readily accessible online. I don’t even need to read an entire webpage, I can press the control key and the f key and search for any word within a document; I have the information I want in mere seconds.
With the capabilities of the Internet and technology in general, it’s an accurate statement to say that society’s collective attention span has been drastically reduced. We’ve grown used to instant gratification in whatever we may be doing, including reading and learning. Carr said, “My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles.” More often we skim and skip than read and analyze. Changes in the way we gather information are sure to modify our intellectual capacities. As Carr put it, “ ...the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation.” When the efforts of contemplation and concentration are largely unneeded, the abilities are sure to be lost, to wear down with time.
Using online resources, without much contemplation or concentration, we can be hugely efficient. The value of efficiency is not to be underrated. We can accomplish so much so quickly! However, the process of accomplishing a task is often just as important, or more important than the product itself. A fearful tradeoff in the way we process information may be occurring. Is our value for efficiency replacing our ability to think critically and make connections? For many, I’d say yes, though the results of long term studies would produce more definitive conclusions than Carr’s anecdotal evidence.
Overall, society has developed a severe case of ADHD. There has been a subsequent shift of focus from quality to quantity, a shift that has taken its toll on our nation’s thinkers. Creativity, critical thinking, independent thought and problem solving, aren’t being fostered in an educational environment where one graded by the number of pages written, the number of worksheets completed. As we lose the necessity of concentrating and contemplating, we have to have someone holding our hand the entire time. Students seem to be more concrete thinkers than ever. What happens when we are without our crutch; when a problem has to be solved without Google’s help?
In spite of the intellectual setbacks the Internet may incur, I disagree with Carr’s choice of deeming this new type of informational processing “stupid”. Efficiency is not stupid. The ability to read quickly for information is not stupid. What’s stupid is not being able to do any other type of thinking. This new thinking could be a powerful asset when paired with more critical thinking. People will continue using the Internet, skimming and browsing. It’s not something that can, or necessarily should, be stopped. The challenge is to make these changes positive and to compensate for the losses it causes in other areas of our life.
With the capabilities of the Internet and technology in general, it’s an accurate statement to say that society’s collective attention span has been drastically reduced. We’ve grown used to instant gratification in whatever we may be doing, including reading and learning. Carr said, “My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles.” More often we skim and skip than read and analyze. Changes in the way we gather information are sure to modify our intellectual capacities. As Carr put it, “ ...the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation.” When the efforts of contemplation and concentration are largely unneeded, the abilities are sure to be lost, to wear down with time.
Using online resources, without much contemplation or concentration, we can be hugely efficient. The value of efficiency is not to be underrated. We can accomplish so much so quickly! However, the process of accomplishing a task is often just as important, or more important than the product itself. A fearful tradeoff in the way we process information may be occurring. Is our value for efficiency replacing our ability to think critically and make connections? For many, I’d say yes, though the results of long term studies would produce more definitive conclusions than Carr’s anecdotal evidence.
Overall, society has developed a severe case of ADHD. There has been a subsequent shift of focus from quality to quantity, a shift that has taken its toll on our nation’s thinkers. Creativity, critical thinking, independent thought and problem solving, aren’t being fostered in an educational environment where one graded by the number of pages written, the number of worksheets completed. As we lose the necessity of concentrating and contemplating, we have to have someone holding our hand the entire time. Students seem to be more concrete thinkers than ever. What happens when we are without our crutch; when a problem has to be solved without Google’s help?
In spite of the intellectual setbacks the Internet may incur, I disagree with Carr’s choice of deeming this new type of informational processing “stupid”. Efficiency is not stupid. The ability to read quickly for information is not stupid. What’s stupid is not being able to do any other type of thinking. This new thinking could be a powerful asset when paired with more critical thinking. People will continue using the Internet, skimming and browsing. It’s not something that can, or necessarily should, be stopped. The challenge is to make these changes positive and to compensate for the losses it causes in other areas of our life.